Emily & Aaron's Condo: A Clean Slate

Name: Aaron and Emily ChoiType of Project: Full remodel, including the kitchen and two bathroomsLocation: La Jolla, CaliforniaType of building: Condo; 1300 square feet

The Renovation Diaries are a collaboration with our community in which we feature your step by step renovation progress and provide monetary support towards getting it done in style. See all of our Reno Diaries here.

Week 2 is all about wrapping up the demo and setting up the place to bring in our general contractor. While the demo went well last week, the acoustic ceiling was still bothering me, so we found anther subcontractor that was able to come in on short notice and remove all the acoustic ceiling in one day. It was a messy job! They wrapped everything up and sprayed the ceiling down before scraping off the popcorn. It was surprisingly affordable and at the end of the day, it was as if the rooms grew two more inches. So worth it!

They wrapped up the walls so they could spray down the ceiling.

It was a circus!

The removal of the ceiling was probably the most excitement we had on site this week, but there was a lot of preparation work done behind the (construction) scene. We figured out all the electrical and plumbing issues that we needed to take care of. We also found a general contractor who is willing to work with us in terms of only doing a portion of the job. I talked to a lot of contractors who preferred handling the whole project instead of letting us bring in some of our own subcontractors, which I understand from a business perspective, but this was crucial for us in helping keep the labor cost down. Our general contractor is scheduled to start next week, which means we want to give him as much of a clean slate as possible.

These guys work so fast.

The second bedroom, sans popcorn ceiling.

The other thing that most people don't tell you about renovation is how much shopping is involved. We spent a good amount of the week shopping for materials, cabinets, hardware, and appliances. We want to have all the materials ready for our contractor next week so there won't be delays from waiting on materials. My mini cooper has never carried so much cargo in its lifetime.

Shopping shoppping shopping.

Mess mess mess.

With such a long to do list this week, we also did something that was a little crazy for being in the middle of a renovation ... we adopted a puppy. I'm not sure if it was us on a shopping spree or the excitement of soon having our own home, but whatever it was, we fell in love and there was no turning back. Truthfully, we've been wanting a dog for many years and apparently we just couldn't wait any longer, so: introducing the newest member of our family — Dug, our 5 month old beagle.

Meet Dug.

Estimated time for project: 8 weeksTime remaining: 6 weeks

Check out the full series (so far) and be sure to join us tomorrow for installment #6 of Emily and Aaron's condo renovation.